The old cliche of winning curing everything certainly rings true for the New York Islanders after picking up their fourth consecutive victory on Tuesday night at UBS Arena over the Seattle Kraken.
“Things change in a hurry,” veteran winger Zach Parise, who scored in the 4-0 triumph, said.
They most certainly have.
The Islanders had lost 10 of 11 games and were sinking down the standings of the Eastern Conference playoff race. But two wins before the All-Star break fueled by the top-notch goaltending of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov prefaced the acquisition of star center Bo Horvat during the break and an impressive return for the unofficial start for the second half of the season.
New York largely controlled play in a 2-1 win over the Flyers on Monday in Philadelphia before the full impact of Horvat’s arrival was felt. The new Islander scored in the big win which featured more than three goals being scored for the first time since Jan. 3 against the Vancouver Canucks.
Finally, signs of life.
The Islanders are tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with 59 points, though they’ll have to continue with this kind of pace to eliminate the advantage that the likes of Pittsburgh and the trailing Buffalo Sabres have of playing fewer games.
“Before these games, everyone had written us off and then we win,” Mathew Barzal said after the Islanders’ victory in Philadelphia. “It’s such a tight division, you’re right back in the mix. So I just like our mindset. We have guys who want to play in the playoffs. We’re hungry and we’re desperate.”
Horvat deserves plenty of credit considering he has provided the spark needed to help change the psychology and outlook of things on Long Island.
“There’s no question when you insert a guy like [Horvat], there’s a trickle-down effect,” Parise said. “He’s played great in the first two games and I think that line has been very good… I think all four lines have been going really well since we’ve gotten him.
“I think you can look at those games we were losing, everyone of them you can say to yourself ‘man we had a chance to win it’ and we had gotten one more [goal] — hopefully getting four tonight will lead to a little more of an outburst on the offensive side.”
Now with Horvat’s team debut on Monday and UBS Arena debut on Tuesday out of the way, now with his first goal for the Islanders already on the board, it’s full speed ahead.
“We’re in it, we’re right there,” Barzal said. “We’re just excited to try and make a push to be in the playoffs. That’s really the mindset now. Just every game is a playoff game.”
